By Sola Ojewusi

The magical year 2006 began with little event. The first two months were like business as usual in the world of televangelism. Even though the heralds of something wonderful coming were in the air, even though there were feelers that the iconic man of God TB Joshua was going to take the world by storm soon, nobody bargained for the amazing phenomenon that would blaze into the world like a monumental miracle.

But when Emmanuel TV berthed on March 8 of that year, a day celebrated by women all over the world, the world was deeply astonished by the sheer power of innovative, impactful, awe inspiring televangelism that came in its wake.

Before the coming of this magnificent addition to the world of Christian television broadcasting, TB Joshua had become a religious institution in his own right. He had transformed our nation’s Christian tourism structure from a laid back, unexciting, uninviting system to one in which the entire world wanted to come to a once sleepy town of Lagos known as Ikotun.

With his amazing talents and God’s powerful unction, he had shown the world that something really good could come from the Nazareth of Nigeria. Despite the odds, he has risen from the backwaters of the faith to become one of the most respected Generals of the Christian faith worldwide. Kings, Potentates, Presidents, Prime Ministers, World Leaders had already started mixing with ordinary people to come and worship at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, established by the Man of God. Through his dogged adherence to the tenets of his faith, Nigeria had become the Number One place to visit by those seeking deliverance apart from the annual pilgrimage to Israel, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. So, before 2006, TB Joshua had caught the world’s imagination and helped expand the horizon of the Christian faith to amazing domains.

But 2006 brought a fresh dimension to the evangelistic crusade of the man from Arigidi. March 8 would go down in history as the day when the great works of old, the amazing miracles that the Bible so exquisitely described, were brought live to the living rooms, bedrooms, and domains of people around the world. Television and TV programming was simply transformed. What many had deemed impossible and considered to be in the realm of Biblical stories came alive on live TV. The world began to watch miracles happen in real time.

What many had deemed impossible crumbled before our very eyes. People with debilitating ailments got healed right before the eyes of millions of living souls. Miracles were transformed from the realm of improbability and stories to the arena of living reality. The spectacle of evident faith in true manifestation astonished the world. The reality that the wonders of two millennia ago performed by Jesus Christ could still be possible today got the world talking and things would never be the same again for televangelism.

Thanks to TB Joshua’s gifts and dogged faith despite the odds and unimaginable challenges, the TV channel has grown from strength to strength, setting inspiring standards of faith and true discipleship among people worldwide.

The Lagosian Magazine congratulates Prophet TB Joshua and the team for sterling feats of broadcasting these decade and a half. We wish the Man of God many happy returns.